Zuckerberg for president? Not on his platform

Mark Zuckerberg, rumored to be (and acting like) a candidate for high office, possibly United States president, recently hosted the Facebook Communities Summit. The summit’s mission, Zuckerberg explained in a post on his Facebook account, is to “bring the world closer together ... a world where we care about a person in India or China or Nigeria or Mexico as much as a person here.”

“Bringing the world closer together” are code words for open borders, which somehow, despite how often the Facebook CEO and other immigration advocates repeat them, are never followed up with an explanation of what actual benefits Americans might reap from inviting in the world.

If indeed Zuckerberg decides to make a presidential bid, the people he’s promised to meet in all 50 states can expect to hear more of his global do-gooding. Ironically, in practice, Zuckerberg doesn’t really care all that much about the foreign-born H-1B tech workers that he’s ceaselessly lobbied to bring more of into Silicon Valley. Zuckerberg is well-known on Capitol Hill, where he’s met privately with House Republican leaders to press for his pet project, immigration increases.

To employers, one of the most appealing features in the H-1B visa is the indentured servitude it imposes on imported workers, mostly techies, but also nurses, teachers and other professionals. The H-1B, used extensively at Facebook, represents indentured servitude similar to that commonly found in the nations Zuckerberg pointed to as the ones he wants to bring together — India, China, Mexico and Nigeria. (There certainly will be no shortage of cheap labor to import from Nigeria. Currently the seventh largest country in the world, by population, Nigeria is growing the most rapidly of the high-growth countries and is expected to surpass the U.S. before 2050, making it the third largest country in the world, according to a new U.N. report.)

Because the employer of H-1Bs, not the individual, controls the visa, the employee must endure horrible working conditions or face the threat of immediate deportation. And since the employee’s goal is a green card, he’ll need his employer’s sponsorship, and be willing to put up with abuses similar to those found in sweatshops — work weeks that extend long beyond 40 hours, but without overtime.

The H-1B, which Congress created in 1990, displaces and denies employment opportunities to Americans, often with superior skills. But the H-1B is cheaper, a fact the Government Accountability Office confirmed, and therefore employers covet as many as they can hire. On the surface, coming to the U.S. to work for a major corporation may look like a dream come true to many in the Third World. But for most, once here, the dream often becomes a nightmare.

Being a globalism proponent, displacing American workers and endorsing indentured servitude make for a losing platform. Just ask Hillary Clinton, a longtime champion of higher H-1B visa caps. Moreover, Zuckerberg’s inclusionist credentials are suspect. Fencing and rock walls surround his San Francisco and Hawaii homes. Forbes estimates Zuckerberg’s net worth at more than $60 billion, and he’s pledged to donate a large chunk of his fortune to various charities over his lifetime. But one of his foundations will award $100 million in college scholarship to Bay Area illegal aliens. Helping to educate illegally present university students at the expense of American kids turns off the majority of voters.

Joe Guzzardi is a Californians for Population Stabilization Senior Writing Fellow. Contact him at joeguzzardi@capsweb.org and on Twitter @joeguzzardi19.